How to Use mother tongue in a Sentence

mother tongue

noun
Definition of mother tonguenext
Synonyms for mother tonguenext
  • At each tap, the sound of her voice speaking her mother tongue emerges from the phone.
    — Time, 27 July 2023
  • In a May 2019 survey, about a third of Ukrainians named Russian as their mother tongue.
    — Michael Bociurkiw, CNN, 18 Aug. 2022
  • And as added bonus, native English speakers will be able to speak in their mother tongue.
    — Teen Vogue, 25 Mar. 2019
  • At the chalk clutched in his hand, the letters of her mother tongue like withered bloodstains, but white, distinct on the blackboard.
    — Han Kang, The New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2023
  • In my mother tongue, Marathi, salad is called koshimbir.
    — Annada D. Rathi, Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2020
  • Her midwife gently coached her in their mother tongue, Inuktitut, as the morning sun cast a cool light across the floor.
    — Amber Bracken, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2020
  • In New York, a poet who fled Odessa contemplates his mother tongue.
    — From Cnn Opinion, CNN, 2 Mar. 2022
  • The Celts’ speech is of Indo-European origin (as are 445 of the world’s languages), but not much is known about the origins of the Iberians’ mother tongue.
    — National Geographic, 24 Nov. 2020
  • And the store has not forgotten its essence: that Germanness shared by everyone who speaks the mother tongue and loves a great sausage.
    — Reggie Nadelson, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Now, this brave man, whose mother tongue was Russian, has become a victim of the Russian invasion of Ukraine -- a tragedy and a shame.
    — Jens Christian-Wagner, CNN, 23 Mar. 2022
  • There’s one final touch: stapled onto each bag is a note written in the mother tongue of the person who will receive it.
    — Crystal Hana Kim, Glamour, 2 Nov. 2021
  • Growing up on the western frontier of the Tang empire, Li Po spoke a Turkish dialect as his mother tongue.
    — Yunte Huang, WSJ, 11 Jan. 2019
  • After all, as there is no such thing as a choice of mother tongue, there is no such thing as a choice of motherland, or, for that matter, of a mother.
    — Sigrid Nunez, The New York Review of Books, 27 May 2021
  • People like her are rare and she's seen firsthand how Covid-19 is threatening her mother tongue.
    — Nicole Chavez, CNN, 5 Mar. 2021
  • The English language was draped over the Dutch city of New Amsterdam long ago, but the earlier mother tongue still pokes through here and there.
    — Daniel Akst, WSJ, 29 Apr. 2021
  • Or rather, knew their home country, understood their history, and could speak to them in their mother tongue.
    — Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA TODAY, 22 July 2021
  • Conceived amid the bombs in Kabul, I was born and raised until age 7 in Fremont, and taught that my mother tongue, Farsi, was a foreign language.
    — Various Staff Writers, Special Correspondents, and Special Contributors, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Dec. 2023
  • Their goal is to vastly expand the amount of information available in their mother tongue.
    — NBC News, 6 Mar. 2015
  • Our mother tongue, on the other hand, incites us to Captain Kirk-like bouts of impulsive passion.
    — Julie Sedivy, Discover Magazine, 30 May 2012
  • Künstler, meaning artist in German, Deckard’s mother tongue, alludes to the concentration of artists and galleries in the area.
    — Markus Haas, San Antonio Express-News, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Some find themselves in the unenviable position of being one of the few (or the only) speakers of their mother tongue.
    — Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 21 Feb. 2017
  • Newsflash: Trump’s grandparents and only one of his parents was born in the United States or spoke English as their mother tongue.
    — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, 19 May 2019
  • Hindi was, is, and always will be our mother tongue and national language.
    — Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 28 Apr. 2022
  • The term refers to people whose mother tongue is Spanish or whose roots trace to a Spanish-speaking population.
    — Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, 27 Sep. 2020
  • The mother tongue of main islanders and outer islanders are so different that English is used as the common language.
    — National Geographic, 15 Aug. 2017
  • Sojourner Truth wasn’t Southern, and English wasn’t even her mother tongue.
    — Cynthia Greenlee, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Most films will be subtitled in English, though some shorter films will be presented in their mother tongue, Bell says.
    — Roger Catlin, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Feb. 2021
  • Looking at how people process foreign languages, as opposed to their mother tongue, could be an option as well.
    — Jennifer Walter, Discover Magazine, 4 Sep. 2019
  • But not as the kind of living, evolving entity that is used by a human community as a mother tongue.
    — Simeon Tegel, Washington Post, 23 June 2023
  • Products that might work for people in languages like English -- like Facebook -- are the equivalent of 4chan (a message board known as a safe haven for hate) in my mother tongue, Tigrinya.
    — From Cnn Opinion and As Equals, CNN, 27 Apr. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mother tongue.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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